Blog

As anyone who’s posted a YouTube video, uploaded a story to a news site or written something for an online newspaper will tell you, you NEVER ever read the comments.

YouTube viewers are similar to Reddit visitors, their comments often offend, criticize, undermine, torment, persecute and torture the person they disagree with. It’s unrelenting sometimes. This time, comments from some YouTube viewers rescued two children at the center of alleged abuse.

I’m talking about the YouTube channel ‘DaddyOFive’. Mike Martin is dad, his wife Heather is mom, and their 5 kids were the victims. If you haven’t witnessed their abusive pranks you’ve missed what I think is the most awful picture of parenting the web has ever seen.

Now, everyone loves pranks and I’ve pranked my kids many times but these are not the Jimmy Kimmel, ‘your parents ate your halloween candy’, the pranks played by these parents put their kids health (physical and mental) at risk.

The DaddyOFive YouTube channel has been wiped clean of the prank videos but you can find them elsewhere on the internet. It is the internet after all.

The youngest child, Cody, seems to bear the brunt of the so-called pranks. For instance, in one video dad shoves him into a bookshelf and appears to bloody his nose. In another they tell Cody he’s been adopted and in another they pretend to smash his video game system. When he cries, (he’s 9) mom yells and screams as he buries his head under a pillow that he needs to learn how to take a joke. “YOU’RE THE ONLY ONE IN THIS FAMILY WHO ACTS LIKE A BUTTHOLE!”

To make matters worse (um…maybe ‘worser’), these two parents have been getting a check every month from YouTube advertisers for exploiting their kids.

YouTube viewers hit the comment button so many times leaving so many messages criticizing the parents that they responded by taking down the videos and creating a ‘sorry, not sorry’ video where the children explain that it was all a joke and that no one was ever hurt. Seeing little Cody trying to join the chorus of “it’s not us it’s you” was difficult to believe. Mom said little Cody was going to grow up to be an actor. Listen, if this boy is acting in the videos he’s the best child actor I’ve ever seen.

Now, to the point of this post: YouTube viewers called them out and commented so often, and many times, created their own videos to bring attention to the videos. Yesterday, Child Protective Services granted the biological mother of two of the children (Cody and Emma) emergency custody.

Not to be lost in this story is the reaction of YouTube viewers who came to the children’s rescue. If the videos hadn’t gotten so many views (some with over 5 million) and YouTube viewers hadn’t called them out on it, these kids may still be getting slapped by each other and being tormented by their parents.

Sure, there are many of the almost million subscribers who apparently crave a real-life Hunger Games, but it is the good YouTube viewers who were willing to call a foul a foul and do something other than watch and shake their heads.

Facebook is no place for sarcasm. No place is safe these contentious days after a change in administration, marches and genuine dislike for anyone (even friends) who believe something you don’t believe.

Have you ticked off that kid from the 7th grade you barely knew but now see her posts about Trump every single day? I mean anytime you gather up the nerve to make a comment or post about politics, religion or college football you’re bound to make someone mad and before you know it, you’re sparring back and forth with someone and taking some of the fun out of what Facebook should be.

I know I am. Sarcastic humor or any attempt at it fails miserably online.

You can avoid the drama AND still post your political rants by making a tweak to your list of Facebook friends.

Facebook has a very cool feature not many people know about that allows you to post only to a list of specific friends. You can find it the Facebook homepage where you are logged in.

See it there in the left panel where it says “Friend Lists”? That’s it.

Click there and you’ll see some lists Facebook set up for you already such as Acquaintances, Family, and Close Friends. You also have the option to create your own lists which is perfect for this offensive avoidance.

Select “create list” and name it what you want. It could be Liberals or Conservatives, it might be ‘easily offended’ which is what I’ve chosen for those friends who want to make something of everything I post.

The next step takes some time if you have a lot of Facebook friends. You must go back to your profile and select the Friends tab just beneath your cover photo. Beside their picture is tab that shows your relationship. For nearly everyone it will show “Friends” but if you click on that box you’ll see options to add their name to a list. Choose the list you created just for them.

Then the next time you post something you know is going to get them going, you can avoid the drama by changing the privacy setting.

I don’t want this to sound difficult because it isn’t, really. In the box where you type out your post there’s a blue tab that shows who you’re posting to. By default it is “public” and you’ll see a globe next to it. Click on the down arrow to select only friends, friends of friends OR there’s a “more options” option.

This is where you narrow down who will see the post.

For instance, if you are just dying to post something political but you don’t want to someone to react negatively to it, choose the “custom” option to be taken to a custom privacy page.

Seriously, this is not difficult or time consuming.

You can share the post with a list of friends, or choose to share it with everyone except a list of friends.

Say you want to put up a smart aleck post you know will tick off some of your more sensitive ‘friends’, post it to everyone except those people you’ve put on the ‘easily offended’ list.

They’ll continue seeing all of your other posts but they won’t see the posts you don’t want them to see.

You might want to do it. The next 4 years of Trump/anti-Trump talk will take its toll.

I have the opportunity to review a lot of gadgets, but I’m not saying you should run out and buy them!

For most of us, money is tight. Just the standard ‘price of admission’ to all-things-tech is a astronomical. Satellite tv, Netflix subscription, internet subscription and the huge cost of owning a cellphone; it all adds up.

Parents today spend thousands more on tech in just 6 months than most parents spent in 6 years during the 70s.

Primary Sidebar

About Me

Hi, I'm Jamey Tucker. I cover consumer technology for TV stations across the country. Most of the stories you see in the newscasts will be posted here. Let me know what you think, tell me about your favorite gadgets. I hope you find some cool stuff here,